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dragonlady7via http://ift.tt/2e7D9iZ:jay-linden replied to your post “Welp. So far, it’s 39 outside, 49 inside, and I just finished putting…”
Ohhh I kind of hate to break it to your sister but 3 is worse than 2. You get a threenager. Because 3 is 2, but with intent. All the annoying things 2s do because they are 2? Now they do them on purpose… and with more skill.
Threenager. Threenager.
I might die.
We all might die.
Very, very early, she learned that when her mother showed signs of anger, she could abate them somewhat by tilting her head, leaning sweetly against her mother, and saying softly, “Hiiiii.” (It was one of her very early verbalizations.) It’s transparent, but effective. Now that she’s speaking very clearly, she’s learned to suddenly, mid-tantrum, when she senses that her audience is at its breaking point, lean in and say, “I love you!”
Which is sort of only more maddening, because she understands that she is hurting you and comprehends that the reaction she’s getting out of you is negative, and it’s like, then don’t do the incredibly contrary thing you’re doing, but she’s like, no, I’m going to do the thing and then be cute.
Her dad is real good at an all-limbs-restrained soft-voiced lecture-until-she-breaks tactic, though. Like, crazy good at it. He had just about the worst childhood of anyone I’ve spoken to in depth about it and his response has been to, like, exhaustively research coping tactics. He’s terrifyingly good at lectures and nonviolent passive responses. It’s uncanny.
I think I’m just not going to tell my sister about threenagers.
On the upside, I will say, my oldest nephew is 8, and when we last saw him (June) he was, like, a reasonable human with whom you could have pretty much adult conversations, and who both understood and respected social mores, seemed to care about people’s opinions, and also understood that he wasn’t the entire center of the world and so if he wanted people to pay attention to something he had to ask nicely. It was astonishing. I know adults who aren’t like that. So, it was really something.
Man raising kids is like. Insane. I don’t know how people do it.
Ohhh I kind of hate to break it to your sister but 3 is worse than 2. You get a threenager. Because 3 is 2, but with intent. All the annoying things 2s do because they are 2? Now they do them on purpose… and with more skill.
Threenager. Threenager.
I might die.
We all might die.
Very, very early, she learned that when her mother showed signs of anger, she could abate them somewhat by tilting her head, leaning sweetly against her mother, and saying softly, “Hiiiii.” (It was one of her very early verbalizations.) It’s transparent, but effective. Now that she’s speaking very clearly, she’s learned to suddenly, mid-tantrum, when she senses that her audience is at its breaking point, lean in and say, “I love you!”
Which is sort of only more maddening, because she understands that she is hurting you and comprehends that the reaction she’s getting out of you is negative, and it’s like, then don’t do the incredibly contrary thing you’re doing, but she’s like, no, I’m going to do the thing and then be cute.
Her dad is real good at an all-limbs-restrained soft-voiced lecture-until-she-breaks tactic, though. Like, crazy good at it. He had just about the worst childhood of anyone I’ve spoken to in depth about it and his response has been to, like, exhaustively research coping tactics. He’s terrifyingly good at lectures and nonviolent passive responses. It’s uncanny.
I think I’m just not going to tell my sister about threenagers.
On the upside, I will say, my oldest nephew is 8, and when we last saw him (June) he was, like, a reasonable human with whom you could have pretty much adult conversations, and who both understood and respected social mores, seemed to care about people’s opinions, and also understood that he wasn’t the entire center of the world and so if he wanted people to pay attention to something he had to ask nicely. It was astonishing. I know adults who aren’t like that. So, it was really something.
Man raising kids is like. Insane. I don’t know how people do it.
